University of Virginia Library

[TO ARABELLA]

SONNET I

Bell! if that old exploded creed were true
Which made the bright stars arbiters of fate,
What a long heaven of bliss might I and you
And all who love like us anticipate!
For oh! how could they prophecy of woe,
Those mild forgiving stars that lend their light
Even to the clouds enshrouding them from sight—
Like goodness smiling on a treacherous foe—
And through the long dark night are ever shining
Alike on joy and hearts in sadness pining.
Why life would be a path ornate with flowers
Darken'd, it may be, with some transient showers,
But they would be of April, only given
That Earth might not become too much like Heaven.

[Sonnet] II

And do they not dear Bell! in sooth possess
One half the power of which old legends tell,
An influence to hallow and to bless—
Calypso's wand of love, not Circe's spell.
Look on them in their beauty as they shower
Smiles on each other light upon the earth
And joy and peace on all of mortal birth,
And then deny them life and love and power
Oh! we at least should yield them sovereignty
For the same stars shone on our natal [h]our,
An earnest that our hearts shall one day be
Folded like leaves within one lovely flower,
To bloom and fade together—Sweet, with thee
This were indeed a glorious destiny.